Back to Basics
by Kaeghlighn
Summary: It was none of Anna's business; it really wasn't. But he looked so... lost. Ssssort of jumps around, but is chronological in order. Varying chapter lengths. KeithOC
1. Ch1 I'm in love with a fairy tale

_"I'm in love with a fairy tale."_

It was getting more toward evening as Anna took a shortcut through the park. She was on her way home from the grocery store she had a particular fondness for when she spotted a man sitting on a bench in front of the fountain that acted as the center mark for the park. He was alone, holding a bouquet of roses. Anna almost walked right past - and she certainly would have – but there was something about his face that made her stop. He had the look of a man whose hopes and dreams seemed to be teetering on the verge of being crushed, but wanted to hide that behind a smile.

She would know. She'd seen that look far too often staring back at her in the mirror.

For a few moments Anna wondered what she should do. The man had glanced at her, his hope quickly turning to disappointment, and yet he smiled. She made her decision.

"Do you mind if I take a seat for a while?" she asked, feigning exhaustion. She was an expert in that, having had several years to feel the real thing firsthand.

The blond man smiled with all of his teeth. "Of course not. Please, sit," he replied.

Anna set the paper bags down on the bench and sat with a satisfied sigh, letting the groceries act as a barrier between her and the blond man. After several long seconds in which her bench companion returned his gaze to looking forlornly forward and fruitlessly searching the noticeably empty park, Anna observed him. Blond, good face, and – were his eyes blue? She swallowed hard, as what she was about to tell him wouldn't be what he wanted to hear.

"I don't think she's coming," she finally said.

He didn't respond. Perhaps he hadn't heard her. But she saw the quick flicker of his eyes and the slight twitch of his head in her direction.

Anna decided to restart. "Have you been waiting long?" she asked.

"We met here on this bench," he said without looking at Anna.

She nodded even though she knew he wouldn't see. "I see. But have you been waiting long? The sun is about to set." Anna was concerned; he seemed naïve.

"I want to thank her."

That admission set a frown into place on Anna's face. He still wouldn't answer her question, not out-right. Perhaps she shouldn't have said anything. It wasn't any of her business. But just as she was about to apologize for being nosy her phone buzzed in her pocket. It was a text from her son. She stood up and pocketed her phone. She decided to stand her ground rather than apologize. "Look, I know that we don't know each other, but I do know what it looks like to be stood up. I've been there." Anna let out a cynical laugh. "Several times. And it's always the same. We set up a date for tomorrow, and just before the end of the night I get a call. It's brief, and I say I'll be home soon. He asks me who that was on the phone. 'My son,' I answer honestly. He seems fine with it, even smiles a bit and asks about him, but then the next day I'm waiting too long for a guy who's never gonna show up."

The man looked at her with sympathy in his eyes, on his face, in his posture.

Anna decided not to look at him and instead busied herself with picking up her bags. She started to walk past him, but stopped a few steps away and said, "I really don't think she's coming, and for that I'm sorry. You seem like a good guy." She began walking again.

"Wait," the man called. He left the roses on the bench as he stood up.

"I have to get home; my son's waiting," Anna said.

"Let me walk you home?" he asked. "It's dangerous around this time of day."

"Thanks, but I'm pretty sure I'm infinitely more dangerous than any purse snatcher I might come across." Anna gave him a sly glance. "Besides, how do I know you're not one of these evening dangers?" she asked with false innocence.

It became clear that he had misunderstood when he started to protest, sounding flustered, "I-I'm not –"

"Relax," Anna said as she turned to face him and give him a reassuring smile, "It was a joke. I'm Anna, by the way." She would have held out her hand for him to shake if it weren't for the groceries.

Still pink in the face and recovering from the perceived accusation, he replied, "Keith."

"Well, it was" – Anna hesitated seeing as "nice" was not the right word but it wasn't like she had a better one in mind – "nice meeting you, Keith. You're still not walking me home, though."

Keith watched her turn and leave, feeling oddly breathless. It wasn't unpleasant and it wasn't entirely unfamiliar. It was somewhat surprising, though. Keith looked sharply at where he'd been sitting for the last few hours.

_What was it about this bench?_


	2. Ch2 And I'm happy

_"And I'm happy, if only for a little while."_

"_I really like him, B._"

Barnaby sighed. He'd heard that before.

"_I mean it, B! He's such a sweetheart and, and, _God_, he has really nice arms._"

Barnaby made a face over their video call. "Why are you telling me this, Anna?"

Anna rolled her eyes. "_Because I don't have anyone else to talk to about him. And I'm pretty sure that I actually, physically _need_ to talk about him._" When the blond didn't reply she said sincerely, "_B, you're pretty much my closest friend. You're like family to me. Please just put up with me?_"

He laughed. Barnaby Brooks Jr. actually laughed. "Stupid old bag, that's what I'm doing, isn't it?"

A sound indicating great offense escaped Anna's smiling mouth. "_I am not _old_! I'm only two years older than you! God, I wanna punch you so hard right now, B! Just you wait, next time we see each other you're gonna biff your face on my fist. You won't even know it's happened until your nose becomes a waterfall._"

"You wouldn't hit a guy wearing glasses, would you?"

That got Anna laughing.

It was nice to hear her laugh. It had been a while. The last guy she had called Barnaby about had dumped her, and pretty harshly at that. She'd been a bit of a mess, and told him that she needed to talk it out before her son got home, since she didn't want him to worry. Barnaby was glad that Anna was happy again.

"_Is it weird that I want you to meet him? But, like, what would I say? 'Hey, Boyfriend, this is my best friend who happens to be a guy, oh and by the way he's this season's King of Heroes'?_"

Barnaby played along. "And then you'd have to explain how it is that you came to know me."

"_Haha! 'And, by the way, B and I met at the Hero Academy and also a blind date.' Ugh, this is such a terrible idea. You're not allowed to meet him. I've decided. It just won't happen._"

"Well, now I have to meet him."

"_No! It's a bad idea!_"She was still laughing.

"I'll have to meet him sometime, Anna."

"_Neverrrrr!_"

"At least tell me his name," Barnaby said with a sigh.

He watched the expressions on her face change as she considered it. It couldn't hurt to tell him her boyfriend's name – just his first name, though, Anna decided. And then she looked sheepish as she tucked some of her hair back behind her ear. "_Jace. His name is Jace. He makes me smile, B._"

What neither knew, but Barnaby suspected, was that that wouldn't last long.


	3. Ch3 Don't you see?

_"Don't you see that what you need is standing right in front of you?"_

Again. It had happened again. It felt like she would never learn, like she was destined to remain a single mother – not that she needed a guy in her life, but she certainly wanted one. Anna took a walk to try to clear her head. Just yesterday she had called Barnaby, feeling happy and giddy, and not an hour ago all of that had slipped away because of one little, simply worded text. Well, at least this one hadn't just cut all ties with no word to indicate that that was what he was doing. She could respect that.

But it still hurt.

Anna's feet brought her to the park, and soon the fountain, and the bench. It was empty. She sat down hard, clutching her head in frustration. She was angry at herself, at the world, at Jace, at her – No. Never her son. He wasn't the problem. He could never be the problem. That the thought had even tried to cross her mind upset Anna, and that, coupled with everything else she was feeling, tipped the scales and lifted the dam. Anna was crying. She tried to keep it to herself, tried to keep silent, muffled her sobs with her hand over her mouth, and kept her head down. She couldn't stop her shoulders from shaking, however.

With her head down Anna didn't see the blond and his dog heading toward her. Not toward her, exactly, but the fountain, as had become the man's habit. As he and his golden retriever approached he recognized the woman.

_Really, what was it about this bench?_

"Anna?" he ventured hesitantly. His dog was bolder than his master. His tail wagged as he stuck his nose in Anna's downturned face, sniffing enthusiastically.

She jerked back, but the dog followed and licked her salty face. "Wh-what?" It tickled.

"John, _down_."

Anna looked to the owner of the dog now known as John, recognized the man, and asked, "Er, Keith?" He nodded, and Anna hastily wiped at her face, not that it mattered, since John was still eagerly licking and snuffling Anna's face and hair respectively. She found that she didn't mind so much. He was warm. She even started petting him. She was having trouble coming up with things to say, and so settled with a halting, "You have a sweet dog."

Keith smiled, but only so little that his teeth weren't even showing. "What," – he knew what she was doing, or he could guess at it – "What are you doing here, Anna?"

She breathed irregularly, letting in a shuddery gasp of air. "Oh, y'know, mourning the fact that I'm never going to learn from the past," Anna mumbled into the dog's fur as she hugged him. So soft. So warm. Maybe she should get a dog instead of a boyfriend, she thought.

Keith sat on the bench, perhaps a foot and a half of space between them. A respectable distance. "Are you all right?" he asked.

That was funny, Anna thought, he sounded concerned, but that couldn't be right. They didn't know each other but for one chance meeting weeks ago. She turned her head to get a look at him. God, he even looked concerned. Anna's lower lip trembled, unbidden, and she closed her eyes against the blur of fresh tears.

"No. No, I'm not all right."


	4. Ch4 I'm not pretending

_"I'm not pretending."_

A few days after meeting Anna for the second time, Keith met up with her at a café, told her that she could order whatever she wanted and offered to lend a patient ear. He showed up early so that she wouldn't have to wait and worry that he wouldn't show up at all. He showed up early because he remembered what she had said when they met the first time. When the two were seated, Keith with a cup of hot chocolate in front of him and Anna with a slice of cake and a chai tea latte in front of her and a fork in hand, Anna asked, "What are you doing, Keith?"

"I…" Keith cleared his throat, "I don't know what you mean." He took a cautious sip of his hot chocolate, and burned his tongue.

Anna hadn't yet touched her cake. "We don't know each other. Why… why do you want to listen to my problems?"

"W-well, because I," Keith's cheeks went pink, "I want to know you."

Anna's eyebrows furrowed. Damn his sincerity. She let her eyes fall and decided to take a bite of her cake instead of speaking.

As Keith watched her eat he gathered up his courage and attempted to convince himself that catching criminals was harder than talking to women, and, by God, if he could do the former then he should be able to talk to Anna.

"I don't care that y– Well, I mean, I _do_ care that you have a – What I mean to say is, it doesn't bother me. That, that you have a son, I mean." Keith took another sip of his hot chocolate and discovered that it had hardly cooled down at all.

While Keith muttered a quick "Ow" Anna looked up from the slice of cake to watch him. He set his drink down further away from himself so that he would be less tempted to drink it and hopefully avoid burning his tongue further. "He's ten years old," Anna said.

"Hm?"

"My son; he's ten years old."

"Ah, I see."

"And you're telling me that doesn't bother you? Not even a little bit?" Anna gave the man sitting across from her a scrutinizing look. She even pointed her cake-covered fork at him.

He stared at the fork. It was mildly threatening. "P-perhaps a little bit, but… Why should that get in the way?" He managed to avert his eyes from the fork and they ended up meeting with Anna's.

Anna bit her lip, but kept eye contact with Keith. "My son is my life; he will always take priority."

"I could never ask otherwise."


	5. Ch5 You don't seem very afraid

_"You don't seem very afraid."  
"You don't seem very frightening."_

Sometimes Anna forgot - despite the number of Heroes Sternbild City had - that the city was still dangerous. Part of the reason was because she was a NEXT, and another part was because she hardly ever saw any crime in person. Crime was all either on television or out of her sight. Even when she was attending Hero Academy she hadn't had to face criminals. Sometimes she forgot that she wasn't invincible.

But here she was, trapped in an alley by two gun-toting thieves, one rifling through her purse and the other with his automatic pistol pointed between her eyes. It was the middle of the afternoon and Anna had walked this path hundreds of times in all kinds of weather and at nearly every time of day. She could walk this route with her eyes closed, not that she recommended it - there were still cars speeding by and streets to cross after all. The last thing that Anna had expected to happen during broad daylight while on her way to pick her kid up from school was for her to be mugged.

Anna stared this unexpected situation right in the barrel. She was absolutely terrified. But one of the things that she had retained from her classes at the Academy was that no matter the intensity of the situation, they were to stay calm, assess, and deal. The phrasing in particular was the shorthand that everyone memorized (and in some cases had shouted at them prior to and even during simulation training).

_Stay calm, assess, and deal._

Anna repeated the mantra until her heartbeat slowed down from its panicked pace and she could finally hear over the rushing in her ears. At last Anna could shift her focus from the gun in her face to the man going through her purse. _Stay calm._

He had pulled out and tossed everything he came across when he realized it wasn't his victim's wallet or coin purse. Scattered on the concrete were pens, a pocket mirror, makeup, and little paper packets labeled with Anna's handwriting. Spotting the packets, Anna's eyes lit up and her mouth twitched into a small smirk, though she tried to suppress it. _Assess._

Anna's eyes closed and she heard the man rummaging through her purse scoff. "Roseanna? What the hell kind of a name is that?" The sound of paper rustling and then the _thap!_ of Anna's wallet hitting the ground reached her ears.

She took in a slow breath through her nose and then snapped her eyes open, only, they were no longer their normal colour; they were glowing NEXT blue. The one with the gun pointed at Anna gasped sharply and hissed a hasty, "Shit! Shit, dude, she's one of those _freaks_." Anna focused her gaze on him. That word made her blood _boil_.

On the concrete a blue glow emitted from within one of the paper packets; the one labeled simply as "Wisteria". Vines and roots and leaves burst out, tearing the paper, growing to an unnatural size at a highly accelerated pace. With the racket the growing wisteria was making it didn't go unnoticed by the two muggers. One of them shouted, and the gun went off but he had pointed the weapon at the wisteria, which lashed out to knock the gun out of his hand and simultaneously trapped him, wrapping quickly around his legs and pinning his arms to his torso. He toppled over, hitting his head on the brick wall on his way to the ground. The felled man's companion yelped and dropped Anna's purse in his haste to get away.

He didn't make even make it to the sidewalk before he crashed to the ground in a tangle of wisteria vines, his head connecting with the concrete hard enough to knock him out.

_And deal._

"You're not going anywhere," Anna mumbled, her voice shaking and her eyes flicking back and forth quickly over the scene. Both of her assailants were currently unconscious and restrained with vines as thick as her wrists. She deemed it safe enough to deactivate her powers and let her eyes lose their glow. And then Anna went about collecting her discarded things from the ground. She found her phone, screen cracked but still functional and used it to call Barnaby.

Anna shuffled along closer to the sidewalk, keeping her eyes on the muggers. She gulped, watching the screen and listening to the phone ring once, twice, and a third time before—

"_Hello, Anna,_" Barnaby said, his face appearing on the cracked screen, looking annoyed.

"Hey, B," Anna replied, her voice still shaking and now hoarse from trying to keep herself from crying. Her lips were trembling and her chin was wobbling.

She saw Barnaby sit up straighter. "_Anna, what's wrong?_"

"Oh, just, you know—" _Sniffle_. "—a couple of guys tried to rob me on my way to, to get R-Regis."

"_I'll be right there, just don't go anywhere; I'll track your phone's GPS and—_"

"Barnaby," Anna whimpered, tears streaming down her cheeks, "Just don't hang up okay?"

Distantly, Anna could hear sirens.

"_I won't. Just keep talking to me, Anna._"

Anna nodded. Her speech was becoming increasingly riddled with sobs and sniffles and generally irregular breathing. "I thu-think the police a-are on their wuh-way. Wuh-one of the-hem had a gun."

Barnaby looked concerned. Serious, but concerned all the same. "_Are you hurt?_"

Anna shook her head. "Shot my w-wisteria instead of muh-me."

In this manner Barnaby kept Anna talking until the police arrived, when she had to hang up and speak with them until Barnaby could arrive. Before hanging up, however, she asked Barnaby if he could pick up her son from school. When two of her favorite boys showed up, Anna broke away from giving her side of things to an officer on scene to go hug her baby boy. He looked like he was about to cry. Barnaby had a hand on Regis's little shoulder.

Anna held Regis tight and tried to smile. "Sorry you have to see this, buddy; Mommy's had a rough day."

The officer that Anna had been speaking to followed after her. "Ma'am," she said in that insistent way that meant that she was intent on continuing to get Anna's statement.

Barnaby squeezed Regis's shoulder and then touched Anna's as he stepped around them to intercept the officer. "I'll hold her off," Barnaby mumbled as he passed.

Looking up to meet Barnaby's gaze, Anna nodded gratefully. "Thank you, B."

Regis's fingers dug into the back of Anna's shirt, fisting up the loose material in his hands. "Mom, are you okay?" he asked. His voice shook just a little bit, and Anna could tell that her kid was trying to be brave for her. The thought made her heart ache and her eyes tear up again.

"Yeah." Anna wiped her eyes and then hugged her son just as fiercely as before. "Yeah, I'm okay. I'm okay." She held onto Regis for a little while longer before loosening her hold so she could look him in the eyes. His eyes were just like his father's, not that it mattered, since to Anna they were no longer that guy's eyes; they were her son's. "Hey," she said, "so I need to finish talking to the police, okay? Do you want Barnaby to take you home or do you want to stay with me? This might take a while."

Anna watched Regis as he thought seriously about his options. He was a smart kid. He hummed. "I… want to stay with you, but I dunno how long it'll take so… I guess, maybe, I should go home?" Anna nodded; she knew he had more to say, especially when she saw his eyes light up and a grin form on his face. "Or I could go to work with Uncle Barnaby? I really, really, really wanna meet Sky High and Dragon Kid and Origami Cyclone and –!"

It almost didn't feel like the right time or place, but Anna found herself half-grinning at Regis and his exuberance. This was what she needed. She needed her little light to make her smile. "Whoa, whoa, slow down, Reg," Anna interrupted. "I'm okay with that, but you have to ask your Uncle B."

And she could just see Regis becoming even more excited than before. He took in a slow gasp and his eyes went wide and he started bouncing. "Really?" he exclaimed, "I can go?"

"Yeah, but you have to ask B and—hey, do you have homework?" Anna fixed her son with a "don't-you-lie-to-me-little-mister" look.

He didn't even hesitate to shake his head. "Nope! No homework whatsoever," Regis said with the grin that he used whenever he tried to get something past his mom's notice.

"You little liar," Anna said with a snort and ruffled his hair. "You'd better do your homework before bed or you're in so much trouble, little man."

Regis just kept grinning at his mom. Then he darted off to bother Barnaby while Anna returned to the officer to further deliver her statement, her mood declining from the brief high that interacting with her son had brought.

It turned out that Barnaby was not actually allowed to do as Regis wanted, and Barnaby was unapologetic about it. Barnaby did, however, say that he might be able to get signed merchandise as a Christmas present for him, which, while not nearly as exciting as meeting his favorite heroes in person, was enough to placate Regis. Just before the two left, Barnaby let Anna know that he was going to take Regis out for some food and then get the boy home. Anna nodded and thanked her friend profusely for all that he was doing and had already done for her today.

"I owe you, B," Anna sighed. Then she crouched down to talk to Regis again. With a kiss to his cheek she told him all in one breath, "Be good, do your homework, have fun, I love you."

Regis gave his mom a kiss back and mumbled that he loved her, too, and then he was holding Barnaby's hand and two of Anna's favorite boys were leaving her with the police. Anna sighed heavily. It was a relief to see her son safe and happy, and a burden off of her heart to know that Barnaby was looking out for him.

Even if Roseanna Radcliffe wasn't invincible, she was pretty sure that Barnaby Brooks Jr. was.

_Dear laaawwwd, I didn't mean for this chapter to take so long! I had to completely rewrite it from its original version. The original just sort of made me mad? It didn't seem right for Anna's character, and it wasn't believable, but hopefully this is much better and enough to make up for three months of inactivity ahahaa. And HEY LOOK THE KID and whoa what Anna's full name? WHAT_

_Also, sorry for not replying to messages; I'm super duper lazy and easily distracted and in actuality love getting messages and reviews, like, wow, do they ever make me giddy and incomprehensible. Anyway. Um. Signing off until the next chapter!_


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